The Power of One, Kushal Raj Chakravorty

Kushal Raj Chakravorty, Founder and Managing Trustee, Lotus Petal Foundation

Mr Chakravorty is the Founder and Managing trustee of the Lotus petal Foundation, which has been set up with the primary objective to create equal opportunities for underprivileged children living in urban and semi-urban areas.

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Overview

Lotus Petal Foundation is an organisation that is committed to nurturing children and young adults living in the urban slums of Gurgaon towards a life of dignity by imparting education, nutrition, and skill-based livelihood options. Established in 2011, the foundation has directly benefited 125000 lives since inception and in the year 2020 alone, 2900 people benefited.

In today’s episode of The Brand Called You, Kushal Raj Chakravorty talks about his journey and various aspects of running a foundation for the underprivileged. Kushal has a degree in engineering from BIT Mesra and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. After 20 years of corporate life, he hung up his boots in 2016 to dedicate himself to the cause of education for the less privileged. He is also a Board Member of IIM Amritsar.

[00:38] – About Kushal Raj Chakravorty

Mr Chakravorty is the Founder and Managing trustee of the Lotus petal Foundation, which has been set up with the primary objective to create equal opportunities for underprivileged children living in urban and semi-urban areas.
He has also been recognized, awarded and felicitated several times.
He also has a degree in engineering from BIT Mesra and an MBA from IIM Lucknow.

06:52- How many locations does Lotus Petal Foundation have?

So right now as we speak, we have two campuses.
One is the whole campus, which we started way back in 2013. So here we have approximately 700 children who are studying on the campus.
And we also have started a new campus. This is on the outskirts of Gurugram.
And we have plans to scale it up in the next three years, to almost 10,000 students, which will make it the biggest philanthropic school in the country.
Apart from this, we also run a digital platform for education. We conduct live interactive classes.
So as of now, we have around 140 partner schools, which are somewhat government or nonprofit schools, wherein we are taking classes and approximately 6000 students taking classes.

08:19- How is the word underprivileged defined?

It’s an economic definition, which is, the people who are underserved or who are not able to have access to education, healthcare and economic opportunities.
In the government definition, there is something called an economically weaker section from which a certain norm of income is defined.
When we talk about the underprivileged, what we talk about is children who come from families where parents started school, but have to drop out because of economic situations, or because they did not get a quality education.
And they are doing menial labour jobs.
So that’s the kind of definition we have for the underprivileged.
And they are living on the margins of society. And they’re lacking access to quality education, to nutrition and healthcare.

20:30- What is the kind of support that society and government are giving or can give you?

Society has to support this, because it is very important to have an equitable society.
And I feel that all the privileged people, it’s their duty to support causes like ours, or anyone who’s working in this, especially that country where only 25 out of 100 students would start school are able to go into college.
And I think the 25, who make it, and by that are able to get a life, really, it’s the duty to educate ones who are left behind.
So I think society can help by contributing, monetary contributions, by contributing in kind, by giving that time.
As far as the government is concerned, we do partner with the various government schools, and we are trying to bridge the gap which is there because of shortage of teachers.
And I think that cooperation is really important because I think both the government and organizations like ours can work collectively to ensure that the last mile is executed in the best possible manner.

RESOURCES:

You can connect with Kushal Chakravorty – LinkedIn

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Profile

Mr Chakravorty is the Founder and Managing trustee of the Lotus petal Foundation, which has been set up with the primary objective to create equal opportunities for underprivileged children living in urban and semi-urban areas.
He has also been recognized, awarded and felicitated several times.
He also has a degree in engineering from BIT Mesra and an MBA from IIM Lucknow.